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TIDAL Now Offering "Master-Quality" Audio To Premium Subscribers

The subscription based music streaming service TIDAL has announced that it will begin to offer what it calls “master-quality audio recordings.” TIDAL’s current HiFi audio clocks in at around 44.1 kHz/16 bit while the new “master-quality audio” offers an “authenticated and unbroken version” of 96 kHz/24 bit. The “master-quality” audio, TIDAL boasts, will sound “as flawless as it sounded in the mastering suite. And exactly as the artist intended it to sound.” The service will be available to those who subscribe to the music streaming service’s HiFi premium membership at no additional cost. There are currently over 30,000 tracks from Warner Music Group that are”master-quality,” though TIDAL said that the number would grow in time. The service is currently only available on the desktop version, not the app. Simply head to the “What’s New” section on the desktop version of the music streaming service and select “Masters” in the Albums section to begin listening to the “master-quality” audio. The music streaming service collaborated with Master Quality Authenticated to bring the new premium audio quality to the music streaming service.

2016 saw a huge uptick in music listeners consuming music through streaming. People streamed over 250 billion times in the past year. Many of the songs that were streamed belonged to the Hip-Hop/Rap genre. According to BuzzAngle Music, the Hip-Hop/Rap genre took the #1 spot for most streamed genre in terms of total song consumption at 18.2% with pop closely following. Vinyl also did remarkably well in 2016 with a 26% rise in sales compared to the previous year. CDs on the other hand aren’t doing so hot.

Check out a commercial for the new “master-quality” service via TIDAL’s Facebook page below.